Multi-directional tower fan

ABSTRACT

A multi-directional tower fan includes a base for supporting the fan on a surface, a first housing attached to the base, a second housing rotatably attached to the first housing, a single elongate rotating blower extending within both the first and second housing and a motor for rotating the blower. The first and second housings both have an inlet opening, an outlet opening and an interior chamber. The interior chambers of the housings are axially aligned with each other and the blower extends from the interior chamber of the first housing to the interior chamber of the second housing to simultaneously force air out through the outlet openings of the first and second housings. By rotating the second housing with respect to the first housing, the air being forced out of the outlet opening of the first housing may be directed in a different direction than the air being forced out of the outlet opening of the second housing.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser.No. 10/731,048, filed Dec. 8, 2003.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to portable fans and, more particularly,to a tower fan having at least one rotatable housing portion to directthe flow of air in a different direction from that directed by anotherhousing portion of the fan.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Portable electric fans have been used extensively to enhance personalcomfort by inducing air movement, and are generally intended to beplaced on floors, counters or other surfaces. A common trait amongportable fans is that they can be easily moved from one location toanother without any more preparation than removing an electric cord froman outlet and physically relocating the fan device.

The most popular forms of portable electric fans include pedestal andbox-type fans having propeller-like fan blades for blowing air in adirection parallel to the axis of rotation of the fan blade assembly.Recently becoming more popular are tower fans having an elongate housingoriented in a vertical direction and containing a cylindrical blowertherein for blowing air in a direction perpendicular to the axis ofrotation of the blower. Typically, air is drawn into one or morevertical surfaces of the longitudinal housing and is directed out aseparate vertical surface by the cylindrical blower. These tower fansare desirable for their compact size and space requirements and,depending on the housing design, their efficient delivery of moving air.

Obviously, it is desirable for a fan to produce the maximum amount ofair circulation and to distribute the circulating air over as wide anarea as possible to provide maximum comfort in all portions of the roomin which the fan is disposed. Unfortunately, both types of conventionalfans often include a housing which is fixedly mounted or integrallyformed on a supporting base, which causes the angular zone covered bythe directed air to be fixed. Thus, with these style fans, when the userwishes to alter the direction or angular zone of the directed air, theuser must reposition the fan so as to face the desired target area.

One style of tower fan has been proposed wherein the air is drawn infrom the bottom of a cylindrical fan housing and blown out through theentire circumferential surface of the housing in a 360° pattern. Thisstyle of tower fan is designed to be placed in the center of a room suchthat the air can be directed around the entire room. Aside from theobvious drawback of having to place the fan in the center of the room,another drawback with this type of tower fan is that air cannot be blownin a specified direction or within a certain desired angular range.

It is well known in the art to provide a fan with an oscillatingmechanism so that the direction of the blown air can vary. For example,U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,004 discloses a tower fan with an oscillatingmechanism to provide a blower capable of selectively blowing air in apredetermined angular range or through an entire 360° pattern. Thus, theuse of an oscillating mechanism on a standard fan enables the user toalter or enlarge the angular zone of the directed air such that agreater area is capable of being covered by the fan. However, therestill remains a drawback to this style of fan, in that, as the directionof blown air oscillates from side to side, there will only be one areaat any given time that receives the benefit of directed air until thefan returns to that area. Also, the angular zone of the directed air isfixed and cannot be altered by the user.

In commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,034, a portable heater isdisclosed having two or more heating units that are rotatably attachedto each other so as to direct the delivery of heat toward two or moreseparate directions. The rotatable heating units are independent of eachother and contain their own separate heating elements and blowers. Thus,a heater is provided which allows the user to easily alter the angularzone of the emitted heat without depriving any of the intended area acontinuous supply of heat.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to incorporate this multi-directionalheat delivery concept into a portable fan in a simple and cost-effectivemanner. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide suchmulti-directional capability to a tower fan so as to minimize spacerequirements and to maximize the efficiency of the circulated forcedair.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a fan which has twoor more separate housing sections which can direct the flow of air indifferent directions as desired.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tower fanwhich is portable and easy to use.

The multi-directional tower fan of the present invention generallyincludes a base for supporting the fan on a surface, a first housingattached to the base, a second housing rotatably attached to the firsthousing, a single elongate rotating blower extending within both thefirst and second housing and a motor for rotating the blower. The firstand second housings both have an inlet opening, an outlet opening and aninterior chamber. The interior chambers of the housings are axiallyaligned with each other and the blower extends from the interior chamberof the first housing to the interior chamber of the second housing tosimultaneously force air out through the outlet openings of the firstand second housings. By rotating the second housing with respect to thefirst housing, the air being forced out of the outlet opening of thefirst housing may be directed in a different direction than the airbeing forced out of the outlet opening of the second housing.

In a preferred embodiment, the first housing is rotatably attached tothe base so that both housings may be pivoted. Also, the blowerpreferably has a longitudinal axis and the second housing is rotatablyattached to the first housing about the longitudinal axis. Inalternative embodiments, the second housing can be attached to the firsthousing along a vertical axis by a flanged coupling or by a pin and slotarrangement. In another preferred embodiment, the fan further includesan oscillating mechanism for rotating the second housing with respect tothe first housing.

A preferred form of the multi-directional tower fan according to thepresent invention, as well as other embodiments, objects, features andadvantages of this invention will be apparent from the followingdetailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to beread in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a multi-directional tower fan formed inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the fan of FIG. 1 wherein the upperhousing section has been rotated with respect to the lower housingsection;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the fan shown in FIG. 1 taken alongthe line 3-3;

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b are detailed views of alternative embodiments of theinterface between the upper and lower housing sections; and

FIG. 5 is a partial cut-away view of an oscillating mechanism for thehousing sections of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is described below as having two housing sectionsrotatably attached to each other about a common axis. This disclosure isin no way intended to be limited to a tower fan having only twodirectional housing sections rotatably attached to each other, andmodification of the present fan to include more than two housingsections will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art given thefollowing detailed description.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1-3 show a tower fan 10 formed inaccordance with the present invention. The term “tower fan” is generallyused to refer to a fan having a vertically oriented elongate shape and abase designed for supporting the fan on a horizontal surface. However,the present invention may take other forms including horizontalorientations and/or having ceiling and/or wall mountable bases.

The fan 10 generally includes a base 12 for supporting the fan on asurface, two or more housing sections 14 and 16, a blower 18 disposedwithin the housing sections and a motor 20 for rotating the blower. Eachhousing section 14 and 16 includes an inlet opening 22, through whichoutside air is drawn into the housing section, and an outlet opening 24,through which air is forced by the blower 18. Preferably, the inlet andoutlet openings 22 and 24 of the housings 14 and 16 are in the form of agrille having a plurality of small openings through which the air cantravel. Each housing section 14 and 16 further define an interiorchamber 26 a and 26 b containing the blower 18.

In the preferred embodiment, the first housing 14 is attached directlyto the base 12 and the second housing 16 is rotatably attached to thetop of the first housing for rotating in a direction indicated by arrowA in FIG. 2. The first housing 14 may be fixedly attached to the base 12or it may be rotatably attached to the base for rotating in a directionindicated by arrow B in FIG. 2. The second housing 16 is attached to thefirst housing 14 so that the interior chamber 26 a of the first housingis axially aligned with the interior chamber 26 b of the second housing.

A single rotating blower 18 extends through the interior chambers 26 aand 26 b of both housings 14 and 16. The blower 18 used in conjunctionwith the preferred form of the present invention is an elongatecylindrical “squirrel cage” type blower having a plurality of verticallyoriented vanes 19, which draw in air into the housing inlet openings 22and forces air out through the housing outlet openings 24. The blower 18may have a plurality of blower sections which are fixed, or otherwisecoupled, together wherein the vanes 19 of each section are alternatinglyspaced with respect to the vanes 19 of the adjacent blower section, asshown in FIG. 3. The blower 18 has a longitudinal axis 32, which, in thevertical tower fan embodiment 10 shown in the drawings, will bevertically oriented within both housings 14 and 16. Preferably, thehousings 14 and 16 are rotatably attached to each other about thelongitudinal axis 32 of the blower 18.

The rotating blower 18 is connected to and driven by the motor 20. Themotor 20 can be connected to either end of the blower 18 and may behoused within the base 12, the first housing section 14 or the secondhousing section 16. The motor 20 rotates the blower 18 to simultaneouslydraw air in through the inlet openings 22 a and 22 b of both housings 14and 16 and force air out through the outlet openings 24 a and 24 b ofboth housings. Because the first and second housings 14 and 16 arerotatably attached to each other, the air being forced out of the firsthousing outlet opening 24 a can be directed in a direction differentthan the air being forced out of the second housing outlet opening 24 b.

The first and second housings 14 and 16 are preferably semi-circular incross-section with the inlet opening 22 being provided on a circularperipheral surface 28 and the outlet opening 24 being provided on a flatperipheral surface 30. Each housing 14 and 16 may be formed in twoseparate sections, which are secured together after the blower 18, themotor 20 and associated electrical components are placed in their properlocations. Securing of the housing sections can be accomplished by anymeans known in the art, such as screws, glue, or a friction-fit, to namea few. Of course, the housings and openings can be different inconfiguration from those shown for functional and/or aesthetic purposes.

Referring now to FIG. 4 a, which is a detailed view of the interfacebetween the first housing section 14 and the second housing section 16,in a first embodiment, the second housing 16 is rotatably attached tothe first housing 14 along the longitudinal axis 32 of the blower 18 bya flanged coupling 34. The flanged coupling 34 comprises an annular rim36 which extends from the top surface 38 of the lower first housing 14through an opening 40 located in the bottom surface 42 of the secondhousing 16 positioned directly above the first housing. The annular rim36 further includes a radially extending flange 37. The flange 37operates to secure the first housing 14 to the second housing 16 suchthat the housings cannot be separated.

Preferably, and as shown in FIG. 4 a, the inside diameter of the annularrim 36 of the first housing 14 defines an opening 44 in the lower firsthousing. The openings 40 and 44 cooperate to provide a passagewayconnecting the interior chambers 26 a and 26 b of the first and secondhousings 14 and 16, such that the single elongate cylindrical blower 18may rotate freely within both housings, as described above.

Although the coupling of the first housing 14 to the second housing 16has been described as a flanged coupling 34 which extends from the firsthousing into the upper second housing, it is possible to reverse thecomponents of the coupling such that the annular rim 36 descends fromthe upper second housing 16 into an opening on the lower first housing.Additionally, the coupling used does not have to be a flanged couplingas described above, but rather can be any coupling which will allow thehousings 14 and 16 to pivot or rotate with respect to each other.

For example, an alternative embodiment of the coupling is shown in FIG.4 b. Instead of a flanged coupling, a pin and slot arrangement 46 isprovided. The pin and slot arrangement 46 comprises at least one pin 48extending from the top surface 38 of the lower first housing 14 throughat least one curved slot 50 formed in the bottom surface 42 of thesecond housing 16 positioned directly above the lower first housing. Thelength of the curved slot 50 therefore determines the range of rotationof the housings with respect to each other. A bolt 52 is threaded intothe pin 48 to secure the first housing 14 to the second housing 16 suchthat the housings cannot be separated. Again, it is possible to reversethe components of the pin and slot arrangement such that the pindescends from the upper second housing 16 into a curved slot formed inthe lower first housing.

The tower fan 10 of the present invention may further include anoscillating mechanism 54, as shown in FIG. 50, to convert an inputmotion, such as a circular or rotary motion from a motor, intooscillation. For the purposes of this discussion, oscillation will beunderstood to refer to a repetitive motion which causes at least one ofthe housings 14 and 16 to rotate with respect to the base 12 and therebydirect air in a repeating pattern of directions. Within this context,oscillation is a motion wherein a housing 14 and/or 16 rotates throughan arc and subsequently moves in reverse direction through the same arcreturning to its original position.

For example, the oscillating mechanism 54 may comprise a motor 56 havinga shaft 57, a gear 58 attached to the shaft and having a plurality ofteeth 59, and a track 60 having a plurality of teeth 61. As shown inFIG. 5, the motor 56 is attached to the upper second housing 16, thetrack 60 is provided on the top surface 38 of the lower first housing14, and the gear 58 is positioned within the track. The actuation of themotor 56 causes the relative rotation of the gear 58 such that the 59 ofthe gear engage the teeth 61 of the track 60 and force the gear tofollow the pattern of the track. Due to the fact that the motor 56 andgear 58 are attached to the upper second housing 16, the movement of thegear within the track 60 will cause the upper housing to oscillate withrespect to the lower first housing 14. When the gear 58 reaches thelimit of the track 60, it will change direction and force the secondhousing 16 to move in the reverse direction as that previously traveled.This oscillating mechanism 54 allows for the automatic rotation of thehousings 14 and 16 with respect to each other about the longitudinalaxis of the central blower 18. The oscillating mechanism described isbut one mechanism which can be effectively utilized to oscillate one orboth of the housings 14 and 16 with respect to the base 12. Othermechanisms can alternatively effectively provide for oscillation of thehousings of the present invention.

As is typical of portable fans, power is conducted to the motor 20 froma power cord and plug (not shown). The components required to enableoperation of a fan with a power cord and plug are well known in the artand need not be discussed in detail herein. As shown in the drawings, atleast one operator interface 62 is provided. The operator interface 62can be provided on either housing or on the base and may include anon/off switch, a speed selector, an oscillating selector and/or adisplay panel. All of the switches used in conjunction with the presentinvention can be touch, toggle, dial or button operated, the selectionof switch type being a matter of design and cost considerations.

In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-5, the lower first housing 14 isattached to a base 12 for supporting the fan on a surface in avertically oriented configuration. The base, however, can be an integralpart of the first housing or can simply be the bottom portion of thefirst housing. Moreover, the tower fan 10 of the present invention canbe further expanded to include additional fan housings rotationallyattached to one another, with a longer blower extending through all ofthe housings, until the desired number of housings is obtained.

Thus, while the foregoing detailed description has disclosed what ispresently believed to be the preferred embodiments of the invention,those skilled in the art will appreciate that other and further changesand modifications can be made without departing from the scope or spiritof the invention, and it is intended that all such other changes andmodifications are included in and are within the scope of the inventionas described in the appended claims.

1. A multi-directional tower fan comprising: a base for supporting saidfan on a surface; a first housing attached to said base, said firsthousing having an inlet opening, an outlet opening and an interiorchamber; a second housing rotatably attached to said first housing, saidsecond housing having an inlet opening, an outlet opening and aninterior chamber, said interior chamber of said second housing beingaxially aligned with said interior chamber of said first housing; anelongate rotating blower for simultaneously forcing air out through saidoutlet openings of said first and second housings, said blower extendingfrom said interior chamber of said first housing to said interiorchamber of said second housing; and a motor for rotating said blower,wherein, by rotating said second housing with respect to said firsthousing, the air being forced out of said outlet opening of said firsthousing may be directed in a different direction than the air beingforced out of said outlet opening of said second housing.
 2. Amulti-directional tower fan as defined in claim 1, wherein said firsthousing is rotatably attached to said base.
 3. A multi-directional towerfan as defined in claim 1, wherein said blower has a longitudinal axisand said second housing is rotatably attached to said first housingabout said longitudinal axis.
 4. A multi-directional tower fan asdefined in claim 1, wherein said second housing is attached to saidfirst housing along a vertical axis by a flanged coupling.
 5. Amulti-directional tower fan as defined in claim 1, wherein said secondhousing is attached to said first housing along a vertical axis by a pinand slot arrangement.
 6. A multi-directional tower fan as defined inclaim 1, further comprising an oscillating mechanism for rotating atleast one of said first and second housings with respect to said base.